"The mark of an immature man is that he would die knobly for a cause. The mark of a mature man is that he would live humbly for one" - Catcher in the Rye
-WARNING WRITER SPELLING CHALLENGED! But Sometimes you have to say "what the fuck!"

Thursday, December 25, 2008

You may be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a LOONEYCHICK your lookin for…

Repost from 6/7/04

A thought that sometimes makes me hazy: Am I - or are the others crazy? -Albert Einstein “Crazy, Im crazy for feelin so lonely….”, “Im goin off the rails on a crazy train…” These are some of my favorite lyrics to songs that touch a nerve in my head. I have always felt, different, or crazy. Sometimes my mind just races too damn fast. Ooops, did I take my meds today? Just pop another pill, smoke another cigarette, drink another glass of wine, smoke another toke…. And Im fine for the day. “your one crazy ass chick” I sometimes here, or “girl you so crazy”. But I really believe there is a fine line between insanity and genius. It seems like so many of us creative artist types also battle depression or other emotional demons. I have met some people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar, and its funny how these people are also very brilliant. Great poets, writers, thinkers, their minds just spin so fast, as if on speed. I am clinically depressed at times, Im borderline ADD, and a bit dyslexic. Sometimes my mind races soooooo damn fast, but then at these times I am able to create, write poetry, read, etc. Other times, Im heavy, tired, and so overwhelmed that all I want to do is sleep all day.

What is the connection between genius and madness? IBM-based polymath Clifford Pickover approaches the question in a characteristically eclectic way. First he looks at the lives of a collection of eccentric scientists, from Nikolai Tesla to the Unabomber, giving each a name ("The Fly Man from Galway"; "The Rat Man from London") deliberately reminiscent of Sigmund Freud's names for his cases. Then Pickover discusses obsessive-compulsive disorder and the relationship between brain structure and genius

----Hmmmm, maybe Im not crazy, maybe Im just a genius. Or maybe Im just one wild-ass crazy chick. Who knows. It seems however, that a lot of our most influential contributors to society have been deemed crazy. I searched the web and found a quiz to see if your one crazy ass artist.

Do you struggle with understanding why everyone else just doesn't "get it?" Are you an emotionally intense person? Do you see yourself as an artist, an intellectual, a creative, an intuitive? Do you live in another world than most people on the planet?Do you have unique abilities?Have you been diagnosed with clinical depression, manic depression, ADHD, or some other mental illness and traditional treatments do not seem to address the problems?Do you feel like no one understands you?Have you tested extremely high (98 percentile or above) on traditional and/or multidimensional IQ/EQ tests? Does your life seem to be ruled by the creativity and emotion that is so prevalent within you?Do you have a rich and exciting inner life that you have found difficult to share with others?Do you have an insatiable 'need to know' that no one understands? Creative Genius

Let me answer some of these questions here. Do you struggle with understanding why everyone else just doesn't "get it?" --Yes everyday. What is wrong with YOU people!

Are you an emotionally intense person? --I think others would say so. I definitely like to make a statement and get out my opinions.

Do you see yourself as an artist, an intellectual, a creative, an intuitive? --I definitely consider myself the tragic artist/writer/poet

Do you live in another world than most people on the planet?-Yes I live on Tatooine “Never a more hive of scum and villainy”

Do you have unique abilities?--Im a little psychic… or just psycho lol

Have you been diagnosed with clinical depression, manic depression, ADHD, or some other mental illness and traditional treatments do not seem to address the problems?--Gee thanks for reminding me. But my meds do seem to be working, today.

Do you feel like no one understands you?--No one does understand me!

Have you tested extremely high (98 percentile or above) on traditional and/or multidimensional IQ/EQ tests? --Yes and graduated top 3% of UC Berkeley class 1996

Does your life seem to be ruled by the creativity and emotion that is so prevalent within you?---Yes and by PASSION too

Do you have a rich and exciting inner life that you have found difficult to share with others?--I don’t know about this. I don’t here voices (anymore)

Do you have an insatiable 'need to know' that no one understands? -No just an insatiable need for sex…. LOL

Well I guess I pass this crazy test. Here is more information on famous “crazies” like myself. It seems a lot of people I am influenced by were considered crazy too. Sylvia Plath (author eventually committed suicide)Winston Churchill and his 'black dog' of depressionVan Gogh (most famous 'schizophrenic')Paul Merton (comedian who had breakdown just as getting famous. Seeing self on tv fuelled paranoia)John Cleese(self confessed manic)Ernest Hemmingway (reckons ECT stole his writing gift)Joan of Arc (burned to death for hearing voices)Alistair Campbell (Blair's right hand man. Blames breakdown on the booze)

And the list goes on…..

Our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness..-Socrates

Many persons become poets, prophets, and sibyls, and, like Marcus the Syracusan, are pretty good poets while they are maniacal; but when cured can no longer write verse.-Aristotle

Here is another link regarding crazy ass genius’s. This site lists Edgar Allen Poe, Socrates, and Leonardo DaVinci as being crazy.crazy ass genius's

We’re in Good Company: almost 300 names of well known people who have a psychiatric diagnosis of mental illness. Almost no one was "Glad" to be their friend until they became famous.Ludwig van Beethoven, composerNapoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), generalCharles DarwinMozart, composerMarilyn Monroe, actressAnne Sexton, poet, 20th centuryJames Taylor, singer popular 1990Walt Whitman, poet

Are we CRAZY or is everyone else just ASLEEP?! This is my question of the day.

You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody's crazy. -Charles Manson

If there is a supreme being, he's crazy. -Marlene Dietrich

Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy. -Nora Ephron

The only problem with seeing too much is that it makes you insane. -Phaedrus

Often people display a curious respect for a man drunk, rather like the respect of simple races for the insane... There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions. -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dark Angel here. I noticed that on your profile, you said The Da Vinci Code was one of your favs, so I checked it out from the library. The Audio Version atleast, cause the hold list for the book is like almost up too 400.

Thanks for commenting on my site!

People are crazy. I believe I had a post referring to the craziness of mankind. I'll find it, and let you kno!

Found it. You'll have to go to my site. On the right, look for "da past" Click my archive. Look for March 2004. Then looks for Tuesday, March 16th post. It's not much on craziness...but its to the brink. Enjoy readin!

Hey V! Thanks for visiting my blog! BTW, in answer to your question, no we didn't see any funerals last weekend in Mississippi. That would have been a helluva lot more pleasant than that long drive home.

But just for fun, I *did* flash my headlights at a cow to see if she'd show me her utters... :)

Now your just scaring me! Not really, I share depression with you, manic/depressive as a matter of fact. I don't take my meds because life is so much more fun when I am on a high, but it gets bad when I have a low! I am not lucky enough to be casted into that other type of people the artistic type! So I guess I am just stuck being crazy!

I completely agree that you can't be a creative person without being slightly mad. I know I am to a certain degree, and I would know it even without it being confirmed by others, lol. I feel disconnected to everyone and everything around me and instead of feeling lonely and separated by it, it makes me feel as though I am more alive, like i'm a little more "there" than most. Ok, it also makes me a wee conceited, lol. What i'd like to know is if there is a correlation between the kookiness and insomnia..AND...upon actually getting some sleep, whether that sleep is fettered with all kinds of dreams and the whole spectrum of dream states (lucid, night terrors, talking, walking etc). I'm sure i'm not the only who finds it hard to shut the brain off at night. Love the blog, definitely going to link you on my page, always a joy to find like-minded people...those who are more "there". Keep on keepin' oncountchocolat.blogspot.com

The lunatics are running the blogger asylum - I like that. Thanks Michael

Dark Angel - I will check out your post on the craziness of mankind. Sounds very true.

AJ - Im sorry the cow didnt flash you her utters.... Oh well next time.

Angi - glad you were able to think. Come back again for more fodder for the brain.

Debra - You kick ass. "The only problem with seeing too much is that it makes you insane. -Phaedrus" Great quote. Yes I did read that Steven King short story. It was one of my favorites. Didnt the brother open his eyes? It was either in Skeleten Crew or Night Shift. I own both of those books. LOL

CountChocula30 - Thanks for the kind words. I do think there is a correlation between kookiness and insomnia. I think there is a large portion of our brains that we dont use, that is connected to psychic energy or "the third eye". Crazy or artistic people may have more of there third eye open, and hence are in tune to psychic energy. I believe that when we sleep, we also pick up psychic energy, hence, the correlation to insomnia, and the avoidance or denial of that raw, psychic state. Okay enough psycho bable, dont know if that made any sense... But yes I do agree.

-Hey Jake the Lad, I will see YOU at the crazy farm. Do you really work there? Or do you just live there? LOL

-Hey Justin! Too much porn on the internet makes vadergrrrl a very tired grrrl.

looks like I've missed all the action! as it were... wow, you've sure got a lot to say about insanity and genius vadergrrl. I know what you mean about thoughts racing through the mind sometimes... I think in my case maybe it just means "idiot". :)here's something I wrote a couple of years ago about just that. Thoughts racing through the mind, not me being an idiot.Thanks for visiting my site btw :)

I have to add, I loved "The Jaunt" -- every time I'm on a lonnnnng journey, when I've chatted my last conversation, read my last sentence, thought my last thought, and there's still hours to go... I feel like if I don't get outta this plane/train/bus/car... I'm gonna go like the prices at Crazy Eddie's Electronic Warehouse -- INSANE!

The problem isn't that you are insane. It's that you are normal. It's the rest of them that are insane. Besides, if you are an undiagnosed ADHD like myself, it's a matter of getting the world to speed up to your brain. (Or slowing your brain down to the speed of the world. )

I noticed that you quoted from Albert Einstein a couple of times, so I thought I would share my favorite Einstein quote even though it has nothing to do with being crazy. Also, I'm quoting a sports reporter who was quoting Einstein, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of this comment: When explaining the theory of realitivity, Einstein said, "When you're talking to a pretty girl for two hours, it feels like two minutes. When you're sitting on a hot stove for two minutes, it feels like two hours. That's relativity." Whether or not Einstein said that or something like that, it made me like him better, thinking that he noticed pretty ladies....

I wonder about this all the time! I was an art major in college and I don't know ANYONE who is an artist who doesn't struggle with depression. There has to be some kind of connection, maybe right brain, left brain kind of thing?